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Deliver Better Patient Care in the Cloud

Ambra Health is a proud partner of National Health IT Week, #NHIT. This week, we’ll be sharing why the cloud should be the backbone of every facilities’ image management strategy. During a HIMSS live webinar event, Jonathan Breslau, Chief of Sutter Imaging, Sutter Medical Group, Dr. Ricardo Cury, Chairman and CEO of Radiology Associates of South Florida, and Morris Panner, CEO of Ambra Health, discussed common challenges across their medical image management networks, the cloud and new radiology architecture innovations, and finally, interoperability.

Through the discussion, it became apparent that seamless access to current and prior patient imaging across facilities and within EHR/EMR systems is critical to implementing value-based care. Dr. Breslau noted, “We can’t provide value-based care if patient imaging isn’t flowing seamlessly to all sites.”

Over 33% of audience poll respondents agreed. While Dr. Breslau referred to the many sites within the Sutter system, Dr. Cury also noted that seamless image transfer was necessary for their partner site Baptist Health of South Florida’s second opinion program in South America. The panelists agreed that interoperability between both in and out of network facilities is a necessity for best in class patient care.

While interoperability might be a term that frequently feels very lofty and idealistic, it really breaks down to this: let’s make patient imaging and data easily accessible so that we can improve care, reduce duplicate procedures, and as Dr. Breslau noted, “not make the follow-up appointment what we could have done during the first.”

Physicians aren’t the only ones advocating for system-wide improvements. The Advisory Board noted that imaging volumes are particularly vulnerable to consumerism. As patients take on more financial responsibility for their healthcare, they seek facilities and providers that can maximize the value of their dollars. Facilities must understand imaging consumer preferences, which frequently include items like an image-enabled patient portal.

Through the cloud, facilities can eliminate CDs and empower patients with control over their own image data. Secure, electronic sharing of images over the web provides a simple alternative to CDs. Physicians can avoid time wasted during appointments by having patients share imaging via a web uploader, like the Ambra cloud uploader, prior to check-in. A recent study found that providers only spend 27% of their day with patients. What’s happening during the rest of the day? CD challenges, documentation, IT dilemmas, and a lack of holistic records to provide a singular source of data for each patient.

Consolidating imaging within the EHR can greatly reduce time wasted by physicians and improve interoperability by eliminating the need to login to separate systems and toggle between browsers. Poll respondents agreed with over 30% currently image enabling their EHRs and the remainder planning to do so in the near future. For example, with Ambra, a seamless login authenticates users and launches a feature rich, zero-footprint medical image viewer. In addition, cloud-based sharing solutions also support image transfers and uploads from a variety of inputs.

As Morris Panner said, “If you’re not developing a cloud strategy for medical imaging, you can’t deliver the patient care that you want to deliver.” Over 50% of poll respondents already had cloud initiatives at their facilities and over 40% planned to soon.

Cloud VNA, cloud PACS, deconstructed PACS – these are longer the terms of the future, these are real initiatives being put into play by facilities of all sizes today. Interested in learning more? We’re hosting ThinkRADical, a National Health IT Week event focused on innovation, interoperability, and radiology architecture in New York City on September 29. For more information, click here. We’d love to meet in person and talk cloud together!

Catherine Slotnick is a passionate healthcare marketer with a deep interest in the latest & greatest in the Health IT space. As Ambra Health's senior marketing manager, Catherine primarily focuses on creating and sharing thought leadership content in the radiology and informatics space. Catherine graduated from the University of Virginia with a BA in Psychology & Art History. When she's not writing, she enjoys cooking and petting dogs that aren't hers.